I've just reread 'The Fly Trap' by Fredrik Sjoberg, which is a memoir about his life on a little Swedish island collecting hoverflies. It's so lovely... it's slow and summery and funny in a gentle, dry way that at first you hardly notice. I think the translator has also done a truly brilliant job. I really am not particularly interested in fly collecting of any kind, but he makes it enchanting and wonderful and almost makes me think it's a life I might enjoy! Highly recommended!

_________________"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

I am just reading Mrs de HV's Lady Cressida and it seems to me that there must have been a book before it because there are so many references to things that have happened to the characters in the past. Does anyone know if there was another book and if so what was it called please?

I don't actually much like Lady Cressida but I'm interested to know nevertheless.

'... a sofa which appeared to have strayed out of a Regency drawing-room and to have suffered considerably in the move...'

Re-reading - after a fairly short interval - all six of the Elizabeth Fair novels published by Furrowed Middlebrow. This is from The Native Heath. I've just reread my three favourites: Bramton Wick, Landscape in Sunlight, and The Mingham Air, and am embarking on the remaining three which I liked, but didn't instantly love as I did the other three.Elizabeth Fair is a great find and my only complaint is that from the mid-sixties until her death in 1997 she didn't write any more books!

I've now officially given up on Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn books... goodness me but that man is a whingebucket! I shall stick with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Patricia Wentworth after this.

_________________"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

I've now officially given up on Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn books... goodness me but that man is a whingebucket! I shall stick with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Patricia Wentworth after this.

And Margery Allingham? My favourite. I agree about the Alleyn books; I liked the tv series even though people told me it was rubbish compared to the books. Not for me, the series was much better, though I'd have preferred to have Simon Williams all through and not just the pilot.

Also on krimis, I really like Peter Tremayne's series featuring Sister Fidelma (thank you, MaryR!) mostly set in Ireland in the Early Christian era; they are fascinating, though I do find I need to refer to the cast of characters in the front of each one in order to keep people's names straight.

Also on krimis, I really like Peter Tremayne's series featuring Sister Fidelma (thank you, MaryR!) mostly set in Ireland in the Early Christian era; they are fascinating, though I do find I need to refer to the cast of characters in the front of each one in order to keep people's names straight.

How could I keep such a good series to myself, Elder? And what about Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, set in Quebec and surroundings, which I know you like as much as I do, though they do require one to give the little grey cells a good workout at times.

_________________ "It takes a long time to live what you learn." May Sarton

Also on krimis, I really like Peter Tremayne's series featuring Sister Fidelma (thank you, MaryR!) mostly set in Ireland in the Early Christian era; they are fascinating, though I do find I need to refer to the cast of characters in the front of each one in order to keep people's names straight.

How could I keep such a good series to myself, Elder? And what about Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series, set in Quebec and surroundings, which I know you like as much as I do, though they do require one to give the little grey cells a good workout at times.

I do indeed enjoy Inspector Gamache, and I know the author has been quite surprised at how popular the series has become outside Canada.

On a lighter front, I'm currently giggling over Winifred Peck's Arrest the Bishop? I also have several of Elizabeth Fair's titles on the electronic TBR pile and am looking forward to reading them.

I'm another Inspector Gamache fan. I got very excited when on holiday in Québec City two years ago to find myself passing the Québec Literary and Historical Society building (the anglophone library in Bury your Dead) which I *knew* was real but which somehow sounded too implausible to believe to be real until I saw it with my own eyes!

I had not heard of this series so have bookmarked it for when it comes down a bit for kindle....

I forgot to mention one of my favourites - Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti. The meal descriptions are mouth-watering!

I 'met' Inspector Brunetti last year when staying with my daughter, who has several of the books, and really enjoyed them. I think you'll enjoy Inspector Gamache, Cestina. A new hardback, Glass Houses, is due out next month, so perhaps some of the others will appear at lower Kindle prices then, too.

I love the descriptions of food and Venice in the Brunetti books, but the last few don't really have much plot to them. Her earlier ones are genuine whodunnits, but nothing much seems to happen in the more recent ones.